Variable. I play as a sideman for live gigs and recording worldwide, especially Oriental style lead guitar or Greek/Turkish rhythm guitar. I also have a Pontic Music Group and an Eastern Med Group with the personnel changing depending on the type of job and where in the world we play. I do festivals, small venues and concerts sometimes together with Celtic musicians. I compose music in various Greek/Turkish styles or in an East/West fusion style. I teach Eastern Mediterranean guitar styles and give lectures/workshops on the music.
Influences
Celtic, World Music mostly focusing on Greece, Turkey, The Balkans, Middle East and Central & South Asia and especially the Eastern Black Sea and the Caucasus, Delta Blues, Old Tyme Music
Kostikas Tsakalidis, Omar Khurshid, Aris San, Nikos Xilouris, Yannis Antos, Sandy Bull, Bukka White, Juan Serrano, Mike Seeger, Merle Travis, Kostas Kollias, Sakir Oner Gunhan, Ashik Feyzullah Cinar, Tassos & Fotis Halkias, Ali Akbar Khan, Kostas Soukas, Orhan Gencebay, The Byrds, Clarence White, Emel Sayin, Pece Atanasovski, Hamiyet Yuceses, Bairaktaris, Zeki Muren, Stelios Kazantzidis, Izzet Altinmeshe, Saffet Genc, Domna Samiou, The Chieftains, The Young Tradition, Aly Bain, Manitas De Platas & Jose Reyes, Doc Boggs, Farid El Atrache, Matar Mohammed, Fotini Mavraki, Safiye Ayla, Picoglu Osman
I started out as part of the Toronto/Yorkville folk and blues music scene of the late 1960s, playing at Tam Kearney and Jim Strickland’s Fiddlers’ Green Club and travelling throughout North America as a folk music performer. I have been Stage Manager, Technical Director, served on the Board of Directors and did World Music Research for the Mariposa Folk Festival, as well as Editor of the Toronto Folk Music Guild’s HOOT Folk Music magazine. During this time, I was able to learn musical styles and guitar firsthand from the likes of Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Bukka White, Rev. Gary Davis, Maybelle Carter, Lonnie Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Bill Munroe, Merle Travis and Doc Boggs.
I play guitar (acoustic, electric & electric 10 string), Macedonian tambura, short neck baglama saz, cumbus and synths. My own style is a blend of Greek, Turkish, Central Asian and Celtic music. I also play guitar in Greek Laika, Epirotika, Roumeli and Island style as well as Turkish Nightclub & Fantazi style. I have developed a modal guitar style for playing with Pontic Greek & Turkish Black Sea musicians.
In the middle 70's I moved to Greece and since that time, I've played in Greece, the USA and Canada with top Laika and Dimotika musicians such as Tassos Halkias, Vangelis Soukas, Petros Goulekas, Stelios Perpiniadis, Stratos Dionysiou, Stelios Bellos, Yannis Floriniotis, Tryfonas, Nikos Kaltsas as well as many other traditional and Laika performers. For many years I played clubs with keyboard player Yannis Antos who was the mainstay of the band with Vassilis Tsitsanis - one of the last of the great rebetika performers.
In 1976 I started playing at The Kortsopon in Athens - one of the last old style Pontic/Black Sea clubs - with the late Kostikas Tsakalidis the master Pontic musician/singer. Since then I played or recorded with most of the Pontic musicians including Chrysanthos, Stathis Nikolaidis, Thanasis Tsoleridis, Gogos Petridis, Lambis Anastasiadis, Michalis Kaliontzidis, Yorgos Amarantidis, Yorgos Dimitriadis, Thodoros Pavlidis, Nikos Tsimahidis, Panagiotis Aslanidis, Sophia Nikolaidou and many other well known Pontic performers. I am the webmaster of The Pontic Music Home Page
I have recorded on many albums ranging from Sharon, Lois & Bram's children's music to traditional Black Sea dance music as well as Greek & Turkish nightclub music, Balkan folk music & Blues. I have 3 solo CDs - "Orient Express" a fusion of electronic instruments with Greek & Turkish traditional instruments: "Al Asha Bi Daha" an album of traditional Eastern Black Sea Music with Nikolas Michailidis and "Galatia" a CD single that fuses Black Sea & Celtic styles and also includes Sandy MacIntyre, Bob Worrall, Michalis Kaliontzidis, Mark Kelso & David Woodhead.
Together with the Cape Breton fiddler Sandy MacIntyre, I have recently completed a book for Mel Bay Publications "Traditional Fiddle Sets of Cape Breton with Guitar Tablature" to be released in 2008 and I am working on a book of Rhythms & Scales of Eastern Mediterranean Nightclub Music.
In concerts, festivals or recordings I have played with or mixed sound for (sometimes both) Nikos Xilouris, Ilias Klonaridis, Eleni Vitali, Yiannis Katevas, Domna Samiou, Pantazis, Annoula Vasiliou, Rena Koumioti, Yiota Lydia, Psarantonis Xilouris, Antipas, Elpida, Yannis Poulopoulos. I have also been sound engineer for performers such as Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, The Chieftains, Ian & Sylvia, Sha Na Na, Fleetwood Mac, Procol Harum, Rod Stewart, Laura Nyro, Van Morrison and festivals all over Canada and the USA.
I have designed many sound systems including those for The National Ballet of Canada’s production of Yannis Xenakis’ "Kraan Erg" as well as Sound Designer for several exhibitions at The Ontario Science Centre including “In Praise of Hands” Crafts Exhibition and the “Sports” Exhibition.
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Interview clip about the start of pro concert sound in Toronto in the late 1960s starting with the Mariposa Festival
